Maryland Distiller Indicted On FCPA Charges

A new indictment has been handed down in an FCPA case that dates back more than two years. Mark Lambert, owner of the Dragon Distillery in Frederick, Maryland was charged in an 11-count indictment that includes seven charges of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, two counts of wire fraud, and one count of money laundering. Lambert is a Navy gulf war vet and former senior intelligence analyst. The charges against him involve an alleged scheme to bribe Vadim Mikerin, a Russian official at JSC Techsnabexport (TENEX), a subsidiary of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation. TENEX is the sole supplier and exporter of Russian Federation uranium and uranium enrichment services to nuclear power companies worldwide, according to the indictment. Mikerin is serving a four year sentence in federal prison. He pleaded guilty to a money laundering conspiracy in 2015, and forfeited more than $2 million. According to the DOJ, Lambert and a co-conspirator paid Mikerin $2 million in bribes to award uranium transportation contracts to their company, Transport Logistics International, of Fulton, Maryland. The FBI began investigating Mikerin in 2007.